


Eyes and Ears

by HenryMercury



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-28
Updated: 2015-09-28
Packaged: 2018-04-23 19:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4889386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HenryMercury/pseuds/HenryMercury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Beifong women keep watch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eyes and Ears

"You don't think it's slightly... paranoid?" Baatar asks, the end of the question fading to a whisper in its hesitance.

"Not at all," Su replies, as they ready the small room for the first round of interviews with prospective residents. "Some people are very good liars—able to disguise all but the tiniest flicker of a heartbeat. The level of sensitivity in Aiwei's seismic sense is absolutely necessary if we're to ensure no such liars find their way into our city."

Su knows these things can be done because she can do them. The daughter of Toph Beifong doesn't get away with rebellion without acquiring certain talents to assist in it.

Baatar looks around the room with obvious unease. It's a sparse room, certainly, but it's at least one step up from the interview rooms back in Republic City's police station. Su saw the insides of those rooms in various capacities over the years, and they served their purpose just as this room will serve its.

"I know it may _seem_ just a little extreme, darling," she tells her fiancé, "but choosing the right people to join Zaofu's initial population is absolutely vital. We can't establish the harmonious city we've been dreaming of and planning for so long if there are people in our midst working against us. If the applicants are made of the right stuff, then they'll understand why we have to be strict. They'll _want_ that, because it'll mean their own security once they become part of Zaofu's community."

"I guess you're right," Baatar says. "Though I do have a hard time imagining anyone could successfully lie to you."

"Baatar," Su says, laying a hand on his cheek with the utmost affection, "Just because _you_ couldn't lie to me if you tried—"

"Hey now—"

She cuts him off with a kiss.

"Don't worry sweetie, it's one of the many things I love about you," she tells him, wiping smudged lipstick from his mouth with her thumb.

 

-

 

Lin brushes her teeth, stares blankly at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, and tries to process all the information she's been given today. They've got _almost_ enough on Lu and his dodgy restaurant chain to connect him to the Terra Triad. Still, although Lin has eyes and ears all over the city, her gut's telling her she's still missing the kicker, the piece of evidence that will get this case across the line whether it goes before Judge Goh, who'll relish the opportunity to put a Terra backer away, or Xoshu, who'll acquit unless the case is so open and shut that letting the guy walk would be as good as telling everyone he's in the triad's pocket. At least, Lin thinks as she spits into the basin, Xoshu still has that last thread of pride he hangs onto. Ro, from the district court, doesn't even pretend he's impartial anymore.

She'd talked to one of her undercover officers that morning, and made contact with an informant whose tip she's got people following up on tonight. She'd be out there herself, except she's skipped sleep for the past two nights and tomorrow promises to be the busiest day yet. Lin rinses her toothbrush and places it back in its cup. She wipes a little drip of toothpaste from the china surface of the sink, along with a few flecks of dust. She straightens up the bar of soap in its holder to the side of the cold tap. She bends her hair pins out and puts them in their place too.

She leaves the bathroom, pads over to her bed and slips in. On the bedside cabinet, her radio blares with the fuzzy updates of all the officers who are out tonight. There's nothing much from the ones investigating the tip on Lu yet, but their operation should be getting underway properly in a couple of hours. By that time, Lin should be asleep. She turns the radio off, kills the lights and lies in bed for a long moment. The silence is very loud. It's filled with all the things that could be going wrong without her knowing.

She turns the radio back on, just at a lower volume.

 

-

 

"It's just that having Aiwei there worked so well for the citizenship interviews," Su says, stretching leisurely as she sprawls sideways over the picnic rug. "And he's become such a good friend to us, too."

Baatar watches her, traces the curved line of her body with his eyes. Su sometimes wonders whether he calculates angles and ratios when he does this, cataloguing the measurements of everything as a way of better knowing it.

"There's a difference between interrogating people who are strangers asking to be let in, and keeping citizens under surveillance." Baatar takes a bite out of one of the sandwiches the new chef made for them. He shuts his eyes for a moment, savouring the flavour, and Su savours the sight.

"Frankly I don't see why there should be a difference. We have the ability to make Zaofu the most secure city in the world—and who wouldn't want that?. People just have to accept a few small compromises in order to reap the benefits of that security. If they don't have anything to hide, then why should they worry?"

"We handpicked Zaofu's citizens," Baatar says once he's finished his mouthful. "Can't we trust them?"

Su feels the metallic dome petal they're sitting on through the picnic rug. It's only a lowe-level one, since Baatar doesn't enjoy heights, but it still affords them a stunning view. The sunset is all oranges tonight, bold and bright between the mountains.

Su's bending runs through the metal, traces all the beautiful edges and points of the structure. She can only feel so much through it, though. A couple lean against the bottom of the dome, probably talking, but Su can't know what they're talking about.

"I just don't see why there _need_ to be any secrets in our city," she reaches out for Baatar's hand, pulls him down until he's lying on the rug too, facing her. He is close enough to kiss now and she takes advantage of it.

"Trust comes from openness," she says, as Baatar pulls away so he can remove his glasses, which have fallen down his nose and been knocked to one side. Su smiles at how adorable he is, runs a quick hand through his hair to ruffle it all up and receives the cutest yelp in response. "The people living here trust us to provide them with the greatest city possible. We entrust them with the opportunity to live in this magnificent place—our life's work so far. It's in everyone's best interests to that we always know what's going on."

 

-

 

Toph sits cross-legged on her favourite rock. She bent it up out of the swampy ground quite a while ago, smoothed it into a comfortable sitting spot, and she hasn't felt the need to change it since. She sniffs the air to check on the stew she's boiling. All seems to be going well.

She lays a hand on the closest vine and feels the familiar rush of energy zap through her. She sees the metal domes of Zaofu, closed for the night. They let her in, though, because the spirit vines have roots deep under that ground. They spread like grasping fingers and pulsing veins, and their earth becomes Toph's earth, along with everything rising from it.

Su stands on a balcony outside her bedroom window, overlooking the night. She's tired—Toph can feel that from the way she yawns and leans heavily on the balcony railing. Half of her knows a Beifong can handle tiredness and plenty more, while the other half wants to tell her kid to go the hell to bed. Su's probably trying to stand guard over her entire city again. Republic City taught Toph the hard way that no one person can do that _all_ the time—not even the Avatar; not even the original Beifong. But ever since she set Zaofu up, Su has been intent on learning the hard way herself.

"Get some sleep, Suyin," Toph mutters.

Su can't hear her, but she moves back inside shortly afterwards almost as though she has.

She checks on Lin next. She finds her snoring into the surface of Toph's old desk at the station.

"Pair of dumbasses, those kids," Toph chuckles. She sniffs the air again. The stew smells ready.

She goes over and helps herself to a big bowl, then climbs back onto her rock. With one hand she puts the bowl to her lips and tips the contents into her waiting mouth. With the other she reconnects to the web of vines. There's so much still to check on.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also henrymercury on [tumblr](http://henrymercury.tumblr.com/); come talk to me!


End file.
